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October27 Briefs

By admin | October 27, 2003

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Linux out of this world
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ZDNet reported this week that Nasa is using a Linux machine from Silicon Graphics with 256 Itanium 2 processors and plans to double that soon. It seems the National Aeronautics and Space Administration has long been a customer of SGI\’s high-end computers using its Irix operating system and MIPS processors. Now it\’s following suit with the company\’s Linux-Itanium line, called Altix. The new product line is a key part of the SGI\’s attempt to try to reverse a years-long revenue decline by tapping into growing markets.
\”NasaAmes (Research Centre) has stepped up to the plate by installing a 256-processor single-system image Altix machine,\” SGI chief executive Bob Bishop said earlier this week. \”They are in fact intending to scale this machine to a 512-processor single-system image in the very near future.\” Running a single-system image means that a single instance of the operating system spans the entire machine. In contrast, much recent work using Linux in technical computing markets has involved numerous independent but interconnected servers.
SGI\’s future depends on Altix, said Charles Wolf and Justin Udelhofen, analysts for Needham, in an October report. \”The company\’s only hope for revenue expansion – aside from a modest upgrade cycle to its current installed base – is its Altix line of Linux supercomputers.\”
More at:
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/business/0,39020645,39117261,00.htm

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Samba 3 runs rings around Windows Server 2003
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Tests by IT Week Labs indicate that the latest version of the open-source Samba file and print server software has widened the performance gap separating it from the commercial Windows alternative. Samba is an open-source implementation of the Common Internet File System (CIFS) protocol used for file and print sharing by PCs running Microsoft Windows. Samba 3, released last month, is a long-awaited upgrade that adds important new features, most notably compatibility with Microsoft Active Directory. Version 3 can be set up to authenticate users from an existing Active Directory. he latest benchmark results show an improvement over version 2, which performed twice as fast as Windows 2000 Server when it was tested by IT Week Labs last year. Overall, it now performs 2.5 times faster than Windows Server 2003. In terms of scalability, the gains of upgrading to Samba 3 are even more striking. Last year we found that Samba could handle four times as many clients as Windows 2000 before performance began to drop off. This year we would need to upgrade our test network in order to identify the point where Samba performance begins to fall in earnest.
More at:
http://www.itweek.co.uk/News/1144312

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Red Hat Enterprise 3 released
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Red Hat last week released its much anticipated Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3, the first major milestone on its road map to deliver an Open Source Architecture to the enterprise. All three distributions, Advanced Server (AS), Enterprise Server (ES), and Workstation (WS), were shipped last week.
In launching the product Red Hat emphasized version 3\’s scalability and beefed-up performance, which the company says will enable it to move beyond the Linux space and into the general Unix space. The three key enhancements to this version that underprin the scalability and performace are native Posix threading, support for larger SMP, memory, and I/O configurations – up to 16 processors on an x86 with 64 GB of RAM, and a single code base that covers all seven architectures.

More at:
http://www.serverwatch.com/news/article.php/3098571

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Motorola\’s Linux phones to include Real software
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Starting next year, some of Motorola\’s Linux-based mobile phones will feature technology from streaming media software developer RealNetworks according to a deal between Motorola and RealNetworks, announced last week. In a statement, the companies said they \”will work with leading mobile operators to enable delivery of premium live and on-demand streaming audio and video services to mobile consumers throughout the globe.\” The announcement doesn\’t freeze Microsoft out of Motorola\’s streaming media mobile phone universe. Earlier this week, Motorola began shipping mobile phones featuring Microsoft steaming media software.
More at:
http://www.techweb.com/wire/story/TWB20031024S0006